UnionFAQs

Craft Unions, Industrial Unions… What’s the Difference?

There is more than a single strategy for unionization. Lots of
existing unions take the approach of representing workers who are all part of a
specific craft or trade, across multiple industries. This is the case of
SAG-AFTRA, the US union representing voice actors and other media professionals
across all sectors including the game industry. These unions are generally
referred to as "craft unions".

There are also unions called "industrial unions" that aim to organize all
workers within an industry regardless of their specific craft by having the
entire workforce of each company unionize their workplace and join with the
others into the industrial union. This is the case of the United Auto Workers
(UAW) for all workers of the US automobile industry, for example. What approach
to take and which strategy is best can depend on the specific context workers
are facing, as the legal framework varies a lot from place to place and the
situation may differ in terms of what already-existing unions in other
industries or trades are available to offer support and resources. But two
things are important to remember:

1) Unionization always starts by organizing at the workplace. A craft union
may have a lot of members, and a union may be officially and legally
recognized, but if there is no organizing happening at a workplace, bosses
there have no reason to enter into negotiation. They can also just make sure
to only hire non-members so they never have to worry about the union. It's
only through the active involvement of workers at their own workplace that
real change will be possible for the industry.

2) Workers are always stronger when they unite. Divisions between workers
tend to be produced by the core conflict between workers and owners. In a lot
of industries for example bosses give preferential treatment to white-collar
workers so they don't act in solidarity with blue-collar workers who are
trying to unionize, but that opposition is artificial, and a consequence of
the deeper division between workers and owners.

In the long term, workers can only lose by letting themselves be divided in
such a way. On the other hand, all of us benefit by working together and
supporting each other in our various struggles. QA testers, localization
workers, console manufacturing workers, and all other game workers must be
part of the effort to create a better game industry for it to succeed. More
privileged and better-positioned workers have a responsibility to use their
position to support organizing efforts among the workers who are struggling
the most. "Having it good already" is not an excuse to not unionize.